850 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MAY 10, 18.iT. 



:w SI M? -(S 5S. ^ sf a> i^^m.'^mm.. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1837. 



KAllMER'S WORK FOR MAY. 



Prkpakation oi- Seed.s. — Nol only Indian corn, bill 

 peas, oals, buck wheat, and niosi otiier seeds, receive 

 benefit by welling theiu just before sowing, and roiling 

 them in plaster. 



SoiLiNo. — Tbig is a term applied to ilie feeding of do- 

 mestic animals on new mown grass, or other green crops, 

 in raclis, yards, stables, &c. If a farmer possesses more 

 stock llian land, and can obtain labor without paying 

 too dear to make it expedient to attend to the niceties 

 of culture, soiling may prove useful " Every farmer," 

 says Lorain, " sliould soil his working callle and hor- 

 ses, whether be may or may not, enter into the general 

 practice of soiling. A very small extent of ground will 

 answer for that purpose. This may be. so near lliebarn, 

 that the trouble will be but little more, if it be so much 

 as going to the pasture after them. The manure saved 

 in this way will be very valuable. 



CcLTUKF. OF PoTATOEs.-Notwithstandingso many ex- 

 periments have been made by practical cultivators, and- 

 given in detail in the New England Farmer, and other 

 papers, the practice with regard to obtaining crops of po- 

 tatoes, is not uniform ; and the following notice of the 

 method pursued by Mt Knight, President of the London 

 Horticultural Society, may be of u^e to some of our read- 

 ers. — 



" I obtained from the a = li-Ieavefi kidneys, last season, 

 (a bad one) a produce equal to six hundred and seventy 

 bushels of eighty pounds eaeli to the statute acre ; and 

 1 entertain no doubt of having aa many this year. To 

 obtain these xast crops of ash-leaved kidneys, I always 

 plant whole potatoes, selecting the largest tliat I can 

 raise ; and for a very early crop, those ripened early in 

 the preceding summer, and kept dry. 1 usually plant 

 them on their ends, to stand with the crown end up- 

 wards, and place tliem at four inches distance from cen- 

 tre to centre in the rows ; the rows two feet apart, and 

 always pointed north and south. 



"i plant my large potatoes much in the same way, but 

 with wider intervals, according to the height which the 

 steins attain ; thus, one which grows a yard lii"h, at six 

 inches distance from centre to centre, and three feet six 

 inches or four feet between the rows ; never cuttin* 

 any potatoes, nor planting one of less weight than a 

 quarter, but generally half a pound. By using such large 

 Bets, I got very strong anil large plants, with widely 

 e.\tended roots, very early in the summer. 



" The blossoms take away a good deal of sap, which 

 maybe employed in fotming potatoes ; and whenever 

 a potato affords seed freely, I think it almost an insu- 

 perable objection to it. As a general rule, I think tti^t 

 potatoes ought to be planted in rows distant from each 

 other in proportion to the height of their stems. The 

 height [or length] of stems being full three feet, the 

 rows ought to be four feet apart ; and the sets of the 

 very largest varieties, planted whole, never to be more 

 distant from centre to centre than six inches. By such 

 modes of planting, the greatest possible quantities ol 

 leaf (the organ by which alone blood is made) are ex- 



enabled to extend right and left to a distance some- 

 what ,'xceeding that of tlie height of ibo stems and fo- 

 liage. 



The ri ason why potatoes, when planted, should nol 

 be cut, is this, to wit: — The outside skin of a potato, 

 called the cuticle, is the most durable part, and retains 

 the moisture for the use of the young plants, unt;l it is 

 all exhausted. If potatoes are cut, the nutritive juice 

 is absorbed in a great measure by the earth. The evil 

 of culling seed potatoes is more manifest on a dry soil, 

 than on a moist. It is, we believe, on incorrect opin- 

 ion, held by some eultivaturs, that a whole potato is not 

 9o good on account of bringing the plants too near to- 

 gether ; for the fibrous roots will spread in every direc 

 tion, and the tubers will not crowd nor interfere with 

 each other, but will spread in such manner as to fill 

 the hill. 



Potatoes, if plan ed in a sandy soil, w!ll_ yield one 

 third more, [it is said] if a table spoonful of plaster be 

 thrown upon the naked potatoes in each hill, after they 

 are dropped and before they are covered. 



Yard manure is very useful if laid over the potatoes 

 in each hill, after an inch of soil has been laid on them ; 

 and then the hill covered as deep as usual. But if the 

 manure is laid directly upon the naked seed or under 

 it, a drought will injure the crop.* 



"Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture. 



Farm Schooi,. — The attention of our readers is cal- 

 led to an advertisnient in Ibis day's paper, o! the gov- 

 ernment of the Boy's Jisylum and Farm School, at 

 Thompson's Island Any farmer or mechanic in want 

 of a boy to be indented until he is 21, will no doubt 

 find it to his advantage to call on, or send to either of 

 the gentlemen named in the advertisement. 



.II.ISSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAI, SOCIETY. 



EXHIBITION OF FRUITS. 



Saturday, April 22, 1837. 



Various scions of Pears and Apples were sent for dis- 

 tribution, by the Hon. John Welles, which were re- 

 ceived by him from Messrs Welles and Green of Pa- 

 ris WAi. KENRICK. 



Nonantuni Hill. 



Saturday, May 6. 

 Received from Alexander Walsh, Esq. of Lansing- 

 burg, New York, an assortment of Kitchen Garden 

 Seeds from France, for which the thanks of the Socie- 

 ty were presented to Mr Walsh, and the seeds were or- 

 dered to be distributed among its membeis. 



DUrOiir quotation^! remain this week without any va 

 riation. It is impossible to pre-ent a correct view of 

 the state of the market. Prices take a very wideranire. 

 Holders are all anxious to press sales of their merchan- 

 dise, and find it very difEcult to work off their stock. 



Flour has been sold for $S 25 to 8 50. Pork has ex- 

 perienred a great reduction, — clear ranging from $20 to 

 $23 00 per barrel. 



posed to light 



The philosophy of ihe.^e able and simple directions, 

 may be shortly explained. It consists in the exposure 

 of the utmost possible sutfiiee of the re.«piratory organs, 

 (the leaves) to the agency of the eUctrizing principle of 

 the solar light, and of corresponding breadth of soil to 

 the infiuenees of air and heat; so that the routs may be 



[D= The discovery of Mr Davenport, the Vermont 

 Blacksmith, that electro-magnetism may be successfully 

 used as a moving power, begins to make some noise in 

 this country. An article has appeared in Silliman's 

 Journal, describing the mode of application, and speak- 

 ing in the highest terms of the importance of the dis- 

 covery. Some machines are now exhibited in N. York, 

 which go far to warrant the most sanguine anticipations 

 of a total revolution in mechanics. One of these ma- 

 chines was exhibited in this city more than a year a'o. 

 It was an application of this power to the propellimr of 

 an engine on a circular railway,— and the locomotive 

 performed its revolutions with surprising velocity. It 

 is thought by some that this new power will supersede 

 steam. It is computed that a circular galvanic bat- 

 tery about three feet in diameter, HJth magnets of a 

 proportionate surface, would produce at least a hundred 

 horse power, and therefore, that two such batteries 

 would be sufHcient to propel ships of the birgest size 

 across the Atlantic. The only materials required to 

 generate and continue this power for such a voyai^e 

 would be a few thin sheets of copper and zinc, and a 

 few gallons of mineral water.— [Bos. fllercantile Jour- 

 nal. 



Sowing Clover Seed. — There can be no doubt that 

 a large quantity of Clover seed is lost by means of its 

 perishing on the surface, whether sown during the 

 frosty nights and thawing days or at a more late period 

 of the season; but this might be obviated if the time 

 of sowing was delayed till the ground was tolerably dry. 

 As soon as it is cast upon the ground, a light harrow 

 should be passed over the field ; the seed thus sown 

 would be covered, and placed in a situation to vegetate 

 to a certainty. Immedialely after harrowing, the ground 

 should be rolled. It may be objected to this that the 

 young wheat or rye plants will be dragged out of the 

 ground and injured, but on the othei hand, whatever 

 might be drawn out by the harrow would be replaced 

 by the roller, and the increase flora cultivation and til- 

 lering would far exceed the injury spoken of. Indeed, 

 all rye and wheat fields, whether sown with grass or 

 not, would derive benefit from undergoing this process, 

 as there can be no question that the stiiring of the ground 

 would add greatly to the growth of the plants, for there 

 is no truth which holds belter, than that every thing 

 that vegetates is benefited by cultivation.— [Baltimore 

 Farmer. 



The Dahlia. — As this i.s the season when this beau- 

 tiful Mexican should be taken from its winter quarters 

 and transplanted, we will remind our readers that, if 

 they expect fine flowers, they must be liberal in ma- 

 nuring the places in which they depusite their roots. A 

 moist, loamy soil is best adapted to their successful cul- 

 ture ; but by filling up the hole around them with a fat 

 compost, in which virgin mould, spent ashes and well 

 rotted stable manure, are properly commingled, they may 

 be raised any where, open and exposed to the sun and 

 air. Care, however, must be taken to keep the plants 

 well watered on every occurrence of dry weather; for 

 stalks of such succulence and luxuriant growth are nec- 

 essarily deep drinkers, and must have their wants arti- 

 ficially if not naturally supplied. And here let us re- 

 mark, that those who desire to have thein in their great- 

 est perfection, should most assuredly give thein a wa- 

 tering at least once a week with soap suds. — [Yankee 

 Farmer. 



Advantage of planting Early Corn. — One far- 

 mer observed to us that he rai.sed from 75 to 100 bush- 

 els of good sound corn last year, from two acres, by 

 planting an early kind. Another remarked that he had 

 been slow in believing that early corn would be profita- 

 ble for main crops, but lie concluded to try some of i^ 

 last year, and in planting 4 1-4 acres, he planted 1-4 of 

 it in early corn, and from that he got a good crop, and 

 lost more than $50 by not planting the whole piece in 

 ^arly corn. — [Yankee Farmer. 



